BLOG - Don't Hit Send - 7 Sanity checks for sending cold emails

29 Sep 2014

Over the years I’ve come up with a list of sanity checks I go through before I send a cold email, and I want to share this list with you, too. For these to be effective, though… you have to be willing to be 100% honest with yourself. If you can’t, get someone else to run these checks for you.

1. How would I react to getting this email from out of nowhere, from someone I don’t know?

Would I think this email is spam? Would I see, open, read, and take action on this message if I was the recipient?

Is it in the style that will engage rather than turn off?Is the tone congruent with the tone necessary to get a positive reaction from the recipient?

That’s the sanity check – how would “I” feel – but the truth is, you probably aren’t like your customer so what you think and what they think may be very different. If it doesn’t even pass this sanity check for you, it’s unlikely to do so from your recipients’ point of view.

To really ensure that your email hits the mark, really take into consideration the recipient of your email (something people tend to over look) and run this sanity check from their POV.

Barring that, however, a quick self-check like this and the next six will likely suffice. Though you have to be intellectually honest with yourself.

2. Am I talking TO them or AT them?

Am I starting a conversation or ignoring their humanity? Not much more to say on this one… are you hitting them over the head with your pitch, or are you attempting to communicate with another human being?

So simple yet, like most things… so easily overlooked! (Why we default to non-human-mode so often is beyond me…)

3. Does this seem like a “blast” or an email a human sent to another human?

From just a content standpoint, does this seem like robots talking to robots? The biggest mistake people make when sending a cold email is to treat the recipient on the other end like… a human. I 1000% guarantee that if you simply take the time to say “does this seem like a normal person writing a note to another normal person?” your email will stand out in a good way over all the noise.

How many horrible emails do you get every day that you shake your head at? Who writes those things? And who do they expect to actually read it? Don’t let that happen to you. This should fix that.

Also, there are some technical things you need to do, especially if you aren’t sending from your own email system, like GMail, but are instead routing through a 3rd party service or server. See this article for things you can do technically to make it look like a human sent the email.

4. Is this email too long?

I tend to be quite wordy (not sure you noticed). This one is hard for me. Luckily, I’m also active on Twitter (you should follow me!), so my ability to get my point across quickly, in as few characters as possible – without losing context – has been honed quite well. This is the same thing with cold email.

Bottom line, would I – or even better, my intended prospect – actually read this email right then? The problem with long emails… the intention might be to read it, but it’s so long they’ll put it off for later… only to never read it.

What’s the minimum you need to say to get their attention and your point across? Say. Nothing. Else.

5. Is this readable AND actionable from a small mobile device?

Another totally simple one… but also easily overlooked, especially if you’re in a hurry (and who isn’t, right?).

Test it on your iPhone, iPad, Android, whatever you think your audience might use. Make sure the subject – or at least the juicy bit – is visible as an “unread” message (usually bolded, and takes up more screen real estate) in “portrait” mode in the inbox.

Make sure the pre-header/preview text will help entice them to open the email. This is an oft-overlooked opportunity to drive-up open rates.

I remember a short time a few years ago where I used a screencast tool that was super-easy to use, but the output was a Flash movie. I would then send these awesome little onboarding tear-downs or landing page critiques to my mailing list and get very little interaction. Then people started telling me they couldn’t play the movie.

Then I looked at what devices my audience was using to consume my emails… whoops… overwhelmingly iOS… you know, where Flash doesn’t work.

So now I make sure to the greatest extent possible whatever I send is consumable on all devices. But if I had to use a technology – for some weird reason – that was only usable on one platform, for me (this is for ME… your situation may, and probably does, vary), I’d pick something that worked on iOS.

You won’t have the benefit of knowing what platforms your recipients use (before you send to them), but since you’re not going to make a big ask in this initial email, this shouldn’t be a huge deal, but if you wanted to link to a video or something, just make sure it plays across all platforms.

6. Am I starting out with too big of an ask?

Would I respond favorably to the a “let’s jump on a 15-minute call” request from a cold email? If you’re going to ask for a meeting, 15-mins is probably the shortest, realistic amount of time to ask for. Anyone who’s been around for any time knows that shorter meetings don’t work or, even worse, turn into longer meetings. So 15-mins is the shortest I’d ask for… but I wouldn’t ask for that on the first-ever email from me. Is there a smaller ask I can make? Can I just ask them an open-ended question to start a conversation?

7. Am I trying to circumvent the process by jumping to that ask too quickly?

Am I being impatient and asking for a meeting in the first email instead of working the process?

This is a big one. You know you should start a conversation, then get them to watch a video, then ask for a meeting (or whatever), but you’re in such a hurry to meet your goals, hit your number, etc. that you think “nah… I’ll just ask for that meeting in the first email. If they’re not ready to meet with me, then phooey on them!” (yup… I said phooey). “I’ll send it to 100 people and I’ll get 5 meetings out of that.. big win for me!”

But the reality is, while you might get 5 meetings, if you work the process, which often adds only minutes (your question, their response, you send link, they reply, you ask for meeting… can take just a few minutes to get there), you might get 20 or 50 meetings out of that list of 100 addresses. But instead, you opted to jump the line… and you wasted 95 contacts who see you as pushy or spammy rather than a real person who’s interested in them.

Cold Email Next Steps

If your email passes those sanity checks, then it’s probably good to go.